The fact that 80% ofPinterestusers are women has naturally led the site — the latest social network darling — to be denigrated by the rest of the internet as something "confusing" and ultimately frivolous for its users' focus on domesticity, weddings, fashion, crafting, and home decor. Obviously this line of thought is sexist. But it's also stupid — a new study finds that Pinterest drives more traffic than YouTube, Reddit, Google+, LinkedIn and MySpace. It would seem that Pinterest — the "virtual pinboard" that "allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web" — is a force to be reckoned with, on par with the likes of Twitter. (While the Internet Boys Club might not understand the virtues of mood boards, certainly they understand those of traffic stats.) So what is it that makes Pinterest — which is inherently gender neutral — so implicitly "girly"? Perhaps the answer lies in how easily the site allows women to connect with, share, and organize their aspirations.

Quick! Name the most perplexing social site you can think of. If you are a dude, it is probably…
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Women use Pinterest to curate their own domestic and aesthetic fantasies. It's the place to collect their ideas — upholstered headboards; decorating with dress forms; nail art; DIY hopscotch bean bags; rag roil curl tutorial; recipe for brownies that look like burgers; polka dot wrapping paper; elements of a dream wedding — arrange them in a way that's equally stylish, and store them for possible later use as inspiration for making their lives a little prettier, tastier, easier.

Appealing to women's reverie and creativity has long proven successful. The power of aspiration has driven the fashion magazine industry for the last century with artfully-lit editorials of women wearing beautiful things in beautiful settings. Something as simple as Pinterest has become a powerhouse because it's distilled this idea down — It doesn't really have words! It's mostly pretty pictures! — and is fueled by aspiration alone. What's fascinating about Pinterest is that it seems to have identified what women want from the internet by simply allowing women to identify what they want. Period.